The present invention relates generally to a cooking apparatus, and in particular to a commercial oven capable of performing multiple food preparation processes.
Conventional steamers are suitable for preparing various food types by introducing steam into a cooking chamber to cook the food via convection. In particular, a water supply is typically introduced in the cooking chamber and delivered to one or more heating elements that evaporate the water into steam. A fan in the heating cavity circulates the steam throughout the cooking cavity. Alternatively, if a water supply is not used, the heating elements can be used to cook the food product via forced air convection. Foods suitable to be prepared by steam and convection include vegetables as well as meat, poultry, and fish products. It should be appreciated that the term “meat” is used herein to refer generally to meat, poultry, fish, and the like for the purposes of clarity and convenience.
Conventional smokers are typically used to introduce flavored smoke into a cooking chamber, which will permeate the meat with a distinctive taste. Smokers can be used to either fully cook raw meat product, complete cooking a meat product that has been partially cooked previously in, for example a steamer or convection oven, or merely add additional flavor to a meat product that has already been fully cooked. Conventional smokers are currently available as regular smokers and pressure smokers.
A regular smoker provides a smoke generator in the cooking chamber. The smoke generator includes wood chips or other flavor producing ingredients that may be charred upon activation of an igniter. Regular smokers operate generally at or slightly above atmospheric pressure.
A pressure smoker is one whose cooking chamber is connected to a smoke producing unit via a supply tube. The smoker unit thus produces smoke in large quantities, and introduces the smoke into the cooking chamber via the supply tube at a rate sufficient to maintain the pressure inside the cooking chamber at a predetermined level, for example 3 PSI. It should thus be appreciated that the elevated internal pressure of a pressure smoker can cook raw meat product significantly faster than a regular smoker.
However, regardless of the type of smoker used to prepare a raw meat product, the food preparation can consume a significant length of time that is impractical in some circumstances. If one wishes to reduce the cooking time, while producing a prepared meat product having smoked flavor, the raw meat product would first be prepared or partially prepared in a steamer or convection oven. The meat product would then be transferred into a conventional smoker to complete the food preparation sequence. This, however, is a tedious and cumbersome process. Furthermore, conventional smokers do not provide a mechanism for preparing food products that are not desired to be smoke-flavored, such as vegetables.
It is thus desirable to provide an oven that is suitable for cooking raw food products using a heat source capable of preparing raw meat product faster than smoking alone (e.g., convection, steam, or radiation) while simultaneously being capable of introducing flavored smoke to the food product being cooked.